March 1950

March 1, 1950 (Wednesday)

• Klaus Fuchs was convicted of passing along American and British atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. After the 90 minute trial at the Old Bailey court in London, Fuchs was sentenced by Lord Chief Justice, Baron Goddard, to 14 years in prison.
• Acting Republic of China President Li Zongren ended his term in office, and Chiang Kai-shek resumed his duties as president after moving his government to the island of Taiwan.
• At 7:35 p.m. in Beatrice, Nebraska, a gas line explosion destroyed the West Side Baptist Church when the 12-member church choir was scheduled to practice. The church was empty, however, because every member of the choir happened to be running late. One member had taken a nap and overslept; another singer and her two daughters had car trouble; the church pastor and his wife had been detained by a problem at home; and none of the other six had even left the house.

  March 2, 1950 (Thursday)

• British Prime Minister Clement Attlee told his cabinet that he was temporarily halting the nationalization of British industry after opposition from the more conservative members of his Labour Party coalition.
• Tawfik Abu al-Huda resigned as Prime Minister of Jordan for reasons of health, but also because he did not want to "be party to a settlement with Israel.
• Born: Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer; in New Haven, Connecticut

  March 3, 1950 (Friday)

• The U.S. House of Representatives voted 186-146 in favor of statehood for Alaska. Although the bill would be approved by the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate on June 29, the House resolutions in favor of statehood for Alaska and Hawaii would be blocked from ever coming to a Senate vote during the remainder of the 1949-1951 session.
• France signed a treaty with representatives of the Saar Protectorate on the border with West Germany, pledging a fully independent "Republic of Saarland" by 2000 in return for a fifty-year lease of the areas coal mines. The residents of the Saar would vote in 1955 in favor of reunification with Germany.
• Tanaka Kōtarō, a Roman Catholic jurist in a predominantly Buddhist and Shinto nation, was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan. He served until 1960, when he became a jurist of the World Court.
• Born:
• *Francesco Nitto Palma, Italian Minister of Justice, in Rome
• *Isabella Bossi Ferdigotti, Italian journalist and novelist who won the Premio Campiello in 1991 for Di buona famiglia; in Rovereto.

  March 4, 1950 (Saturday)

• Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai returned to the People's Republic of China after having been in the Soviet Union since December.
• The celebration, of the February 23 election of Northern Irish nationalist Cahir Healy to the United Kingdom's House of Commons, turned into a riot after supporters displayed the Republic of Ireland flag, in violation of U.K. law.
• Born: Rick Perry, Governor of Texas and 2012 candidate for Republican U.S. presidential nomination; in Paint Creek, Texas
• Died: Adam Rainer, 50, Austrian man who was the only person on record to have been both a dwarf and a giant

  March 5, 1950 (Sunday)

• Programming began for the first computerized weather forecast, with data from meteorologist Anthony Richardson being encoded into machine code for the ENIAC computer at Princeton University.
• The signing of a pact between United Mine Workers of America President John L. Lewis and coal operators ended a month-long strike by 370,000 bituminous coal miners
• The first postwar elections in Greece, since the end of the Greek Civil War, were held, with no party having more than 20 percent of the vote.
• In Rome, at the Aviator House, institution of the UIL, a syndicate gathering the social-democrat and republican workers, coming from the Federazione iltaliana lavoratori, and some “autonomist” socialists coming from the CGIL The new syndicate was sustained by the CIO and by center-left Italian politicians, as Ferruccio Parri; the socialist Italo Viglianesi was its first secretary.
• Died: Roman Shukhevych, 42, Ukrainian insurgent against the Soviet Union, was assassinated.

  March 6, 1950 (Monday)

• Iran extended diplomatic recognition to Israel.
• Died:
• *Albert Lebrun, 78, President of France 1932-1940
• *Harry Redfern, 88, British architect

  March 7, 1950 (Tuesday)

• The U.S. House of Representatives voted 261–110 in favor of granting statehood to Hawaii.
• Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307 crashed into a home in Minneapolis, killing all 13 people on board and two children who had been sleeping in their beds.
• Former U.S. Justice Department employee Judith Coplon became the first American to be convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.
• Born: Franco Harris, American NFL player and Hall of Fame enshrinee; in Fort Dix, New Jersey

  March 8, 1950 (Wednesday)

• The first Volkswagen van rolled off the assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany.
• The British government announced that it would not recognize Seretse Khama as the chief of the Bamangwato tribe in the African protectorate of Bechuanaland, primarily because of the controversy over his marriage to a white Englishwoman, Ruth Williams. When Bechuanaland became independent as Botswana in 1965, Khama would become its first President.
• The World Figure Skating Championships concluded in Wembley, England. Dick Button of the United States won the Men's event for the third year in a row while Alena Vrzáňová of Czechoslovakia won the Ladies' for the second straight year.

  March 9, 1950 (Thursday)

• Iraq enacted the Law of Denaturalization, giving its Jewish citizens one year to legally emigrate from Iraq on condition that they surrender their citizenship and never return. Ninety percent of the Jewish population, nearly 124,000 people, would decide to exercise the option and move to Israel.
• The first successful American science fiction television show, Space Patrol began, as a 15-minute afternoon series about adventures in the 30th century, on a Los Angeles station KECA-TV. On December 30, it would be picked up nationally by the ABC Television network and run for four seasons.
• Robert Doisneau took the photo Le baiser de l'Hotel de Ville.
• Born: Danny Sullivan, American race car driver, 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner; in Louisville, Kentucky
• Died: Timothy Evans, 25, a Welsh van driver, was hanged after the November 30, 1949, murder of his wife and daughter. Later, it would be discovered that the chief prosecution witness, Evans's landlord John Christie, was a serial killer. Christie would be hanged for other crimes in 1953. Evans would receive a posthumous pardon from Queen Elizabeth II on October 18, 1966.

  March 10, 1950 (Friday)

• After considering the arguments of Edward Teller and John Archibald Wheeler that the Soviet Union would work on developing the hydrogen bomb even if the United States delayed, U.S. President Truman issued a secret Executive Order for immediate development of the thermonuclear weapons as "a matter of the highest urgency". Truman approved budgeting sufficient funds for research and for production of up to ten "H-bombs".
• Albert Schatz, who had been a student at Rutgers University, took the action of suing the university and his former professor, Dr. Selman Waksman. Schatz sought formal recognition as the co-discoverer of Streptomycin and for a share of royalties from the patent. On December 29, the case would be settled, with Schatz receiving acknowledgment, 3% of future royalties, and $125,000.
• Wolfgang Hedler, a West German Bundestag deputy and former Nazi who had recently been acquitted of trying to incite anti-Semitism, was ordered to leave the Parliament House at Bonn. On his way out, he was punched and kicked by ten of his fellow members of parliament.
• Died: Marguerite De La Motte, 47, American silent film actress and leading lady

  March 11, 1950 (Saturday)

• The Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team, defending world champions, was preparing to take a flight to London for the 1950 world championship tournament. At the airport, the police arrested the entire team except for one player, Vladimír Zábrodský, on charges that the athletes planned to defect while in London. Most of the national team players would remain imprisoned until October. Twelve were convicted of treason and given sentences ranging from 6 months to 15 years, with the star player, goalie Bohumil Modrý receiving the longest term.
• Deputy U.S. Undersecretary of State John Peurifoy challenged U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy to prove allegations that there were Communists employed in the U.S. Department of State. "I think that Senator McCarthy owes it to the country to make available... any evidence which he has that involves the loyalty of persons in the Department of State, whether it be the 205 that he said were Communists in Wheeling, the 57 that he said were card-carrying Communists in Salt Lake City, the four that he said weren't Communists at all in Reno, the 81 that he mentioned on the floor of the Senate, or just one," Peurifoy told reporters.
• In Sicily, police intervene to chase the laborers and unemployed occupying the uncultivated lands of the big landowners. During the month, the repression of the lands’ occupations and of the workers’ protests causes six dead in Italy.
• Born:
• *Jerry Zucker, American film director; in Milwaukee
• *Bobby McFerrin, American singer known for the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy"; in New York City
• Died:
• *Brock Pemberton, 64, American theatrical producer
• *Charles Windolph, 98, American Medal of Honor winner and last white survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn

  March 12, 1950 (Sunday)

• Llandow air disaster: All 80 people on a chartered airplane were killed in the worst airline accident up to that time, when their Avro Tudor airplane crashed while attempting to land at the Llandow Airfield in Wales. There were only three survivors. The 78 passengers were rugby fans returning to Cardiff from Dublin, where Wales had won the United Kingdom rugby championship, 6–3, over Ireland.
• Royal question: Voters in a referendum in Belgium approved the return of King Leopold III to resume the exercise of his constitutional powers, with 2,933,382 in favor of the monarch's return, and 2,151,881 against. The King had announced that he would abdicate unless he received at least 55 percent approval, and the final question was to be decided by Parliament, which extended him an invitation to return. King Leopold would return to Brussels on July 22, 1950, for the first time since World War II, proving to be so unpopular that he would annonce his abdication nine days later.
• Elections were held for the Supreme Soviet, the parliament for the Soviet Union. The 671 candidates for the Soviet of the Union and the 631 for the Soviet of Nationalities were all unopposed. Although most were Communist Party members, some were non-members who were designated as "non-party".
• Born: Javier Clemente, Spanish soccer football manager who managed the national teams of Spain, Serbia and Cameroon ; in Barakaldo
• Died: Heinrich Mann, 78, German novelist; in Santa Monica, California